Disney's Aladdin Will Play Toronto This Fall Prior to 2014 Broadway Premiere

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22 Jan 2013

A still from the animated film "Aladdin."

Photo by Disney

Disney's stage adaptation of the 1992 Academy Award-winning animated film Aladdin will play a pre-Broadway engagement at Toronto's Mirvish Theatre this fall prior to a Broadway bow at the New Amsterdam Theatre in 2014.

The stage production, which expands the 90-minute film into a two-act format, has music by Alan Menken, lyrics from the film by the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, as well as new book and lyrics by Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer, Elf). Menken told Playbill.com Jan. 19 that the stage production incorporates many ideas he and Ashman conceived for the 1992 film that never made it to the screen. Among them are a trio of Aladdin's friends, Omar, Babkak, and Kassim, as well as a handful of early songs including "Proud of Your Boy."

An earlier pilot version of Aladdin premiered at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in the summer of 2011. Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon), who directed and choreographed that staging, will return for the upcoming Broadway-bound production.

Aladdin will premiere Nov. 13 at the Mirvish Theatre for a run through Jan. 12, 2014. Dates of a Broadway production have not been determined, but Disney has announced a 2014 arrival at the New Amsterdam Theatre, the current home of Mary Poppins, which ends its run there March 3.

According to Disney, the Broadway staging will be an entirely new production, "featuring a new script, tunestack and a wholly original design scaled to the Broadway stage and an epic story."

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Casting will be announced at a later date.

The creative team from the Seattle pilot production will return to work on the new Broadway mounting. Added to the team is Tony Award winner Bob Crowley (Once, Tarzan), who will design the scenery. Also included are Tony Award-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes (The Drowsy Chaperone), Tony-winning lighting designer Natasha Katz (Beauty and the Beast, Aida), dance arranger Glen Kelly (The Producers, Drowsy Chaperone) and musical supervisor Michael Kosarin (Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act).